Aldgate Tower, Ince's London HQ.

At least eight Ince Gordon Dadds partners are resigning from the firm, including four global heads of key departments, several people close to the situation have said. 

Among those to have resigned are global shipping head Faz Peermohamed, global insurance head Kiran Soar, global trade chief Will Marshall, and head of energy and infrastructure Simon Hems, four people with knowledge of the matter said. 

Meanwhile, London insurance co-lead Carrie Radford, commercial disputes partners Jonas Adolfsson and Antonia Jackson, and energy partner Anna Macdonald, are also to leave, the people said.

The departures add to the AIM-listed firm's woes, lately illustrated by a depressed share price that has fallen more than 60% since the start of the year.

Three people familiar with the matter said the walkout follows the expiration of a 12-month lock-in period the firm implemented when listed firm Gordon Dadds' acquired Ince & Co out of a pre-packaged administration on December 31, 2018.

Several of the people added that more departures are expected.

Peermohamed, a top-ranked shipping lawyer, joined Ince in 1994. He took a brief break from the firm in 2015 to become the CEO of the Norwegian Hull Club, but returned to the firm in 2016 to lead the firm's global shipping practice. He also practices maritime law as a director at Ince breakaway firm Stann Marine. In his time at Ince, he advised on some of the maritime industry's highest profile cases, including the Costa Concordia capsize in Italy and the Prestige oil spill in Spain. 

Meanwhile, insurance chief Soar, a partner at the firm since 2011 after being hired from legacy Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, is joining the exodus alongside trade head Marshall, a partner since 2007 after qualifying in 2000, and Hems, an Ince energy lawyer since 1999. 

Insurance expert Radford is leaving to join an insurance outfit, two people said. Jackson is to join fellow former Ince partner Simon Sparks in the legal team at Oldendorrf — one of the world's largest shipping companies, two people said. Adolfsson is to join the London office of Norwegian firm Schjodt, one person said.

Two separate people with knowledge of the matter said that energy partners Hems and Macdonald were to join a U.S. firm's London office.

The 2018 combination of Ince and Gordon Dadds has not been without controversy, with Legal Week, the U.K. arm of Law.com International, reporting a slew of partner exits that soon followed. Further, the creditors of legacy firm Ince & Co — which was placed into administration following the pre-packaged sale — are facing a multimillion-pound shortfall in arrears.

The Ince Group — of which Ince Gordon Dadds is a central component — has nevertheless managed to maintain its acquisitive stride against a backdrop of a struggling share price, which last month nosedived from 115p to around 44p, where it remains. It followed an accelerated bookbuild which people close to the firm said was done in order to raise capital to fund the acquisition of a 10-lawyer team from shipping specialist firm Bentleys Stokes & Lowless last month.

In a statement to Law.com International U.K., a spokesperson at Ince said: "While four former equity partners and a small number of senior fee earners have given notice of their departure from the firm over the last 14 months, 22 leading individuals and partners have joined Ince over the same period."

The spokesperson also highlighted recent hires for the firm, including Julian Clark from Hill Dickinson, and cannabis law expert Robert Jappie.

He added: "As with any business of the size and scale of Ince, there will always be a degree of changing of the guard in personnel. We wish the small number of individuals who are leaving the firm well in their new endeavours."